Consensys and Ethereum co-founder Joe Lubin joined DeFi United in committing as much as 30,000 ETH to recovery efforts to restore rsETH support after a $290 million bridge exploit caused widespread disruption in DeFi.
The initiative led by Aave DAO participants aims to support affected users and stabilize rsETH markets, with board approval still pending for all protocols involved.
The financing is intended to provide immediate liquidity while governance processes continue, with an eye to limiting disruptions to DeFi protocols. Sharplink, a publicly traded Ethereum treasury company, does joined acting in an advisory role to aid structure the recovery plan.
Source: Ghost on X
DeFi United was announced on April 23 by service providers for the Aave DAO, and participants included Lido, EtherFi, Ethena, Mantle and Frax.
The data recovery attempt followed an exploit on April 18 that resulted in approximately 116,500 rsETH being sent from the computer, worth approximately $290 million. Bridge based on Layer Zero powered by Kelp DAO.
The incident caused disruptions across the DeFi ecosystem, with dozens of protocols pausing some functions. On the Aave platform, an attacker used rsETH as collateral to borrow liquidity, contributing to as much as $200 million in bad debt and forcing the protocol to freeze rsETH markets.
According to LayerZero Labs, the exploit was related to a configuration issue in Kelp’s configuration that relied on a single verification path for cross-chain messages.
Separately, Circle he said On Monday, its venture arm is purchasing AAVE tokens to support the protocol and the broader DeFi ecosystem.
Source: Wheel on X
Related: Aave asks Arbitrum to send 30,000. ETH from Kelp exploiter to ‘DeFi United’
The number of DeFi hacks increased in April
The event occurs on a wave recent attacks targeting DeFi protocols. According to DefiLlama, approximately $729 million has been lost to cryptocurrency hacks over the past 90 days, with approximately $623 million of that occurring in April alone.
The month started more or less Exploit worth $280 million the Drift Protocol of April 1, carried out through a social engineering attack carried out by an attacker suspected of having ties to North Korea.
DeFi Hacks, February-April 2026. Source: DefiLlama
Two weeks later, Rhea Finance reported that an attacker had exploited a vulnerability in its margin trading function to manipulate liquidity pools, resulting in approximately $7.6 million in losses, according to Rhea Finance. CertiK. The protocol has since paused and is undergoing phases recoverywith most of the funds recovered and some USDT still frozen until released by Tether.
The series of attacks also includes smaller exploits from earlier in the month, such as a $410,000 loss at Dango on April 13, a $392,000 Oracle incident at Silo Finance on April 3, and a $423,000 access control exploit at Aethir on April 9.
While none of the recent attacks have been clearly linked to artificial intelligence, researchers say advances in technology are making it easier to identify and exploit vulnerabilities in DeFi systems.
In tardy 2025, scientists at Anthropic found that AI models can identify more than half of known shrewd contract exploits, highlighting how the technology can accelerate future attacks.
Data from Polymarket can be seen traders estimate the high probability of another major cryptocurrency hack this year, and the probability that by the end of 2026 will be 84%.
The odds of another cryptocurrency hack exceed $100 million. Source: Polimarket
Warehouse: AI-powered hacks could kill DeFi – unless projects start acting now
